


Mile of a Different Color

by Silver Blue (Seraph_Years)



Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [3]
Category: Original Work, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Alternate Universe, Coming of Age, It doesn't look like it at first, It gets darker over time, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Plot Twists, Sexual References, no seriously it does
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:08:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25019029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seraph_Years/pseuds/Silver%20Blue
Summary: Reality has a story.It is up to the Reality Shapers to control the passageways of the story and influence how it goes.After a final battle goes awry due to a Reality Shaper influencing the timeline, said timeline split in two and has influenced Solution City as a result. It is up to Quincy to influence reality so that the good ending has more control over reality than the bad one.Read Spectrum to understand Mile of a Different Color and how the former affects the latter.
Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765396





	1. A-Side Prologue - Heaven's Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> No, seriously. Mile of a Different Color spoils Spectrum's ending heavily, so if you want to enjoy this story better, read Spectrum. you have been warned.

"Hello there. I want to introduce you to someone familiar.”

A mysterious sleek figure stood over Quincy. The latter wanted to know where everyone was, but even moving around was a struggle for him even though he wasn’t bound by anything.

“Listen here, soldier. I’m not doing anything to you. That ending that you wanted? It’s all in here.” the figure said, pointing to his head, which looks like a translucent crystallized hard-drive molded into a polygon. 

“But first, you’re gonna have to move closer to me. I’m six feet away from you. If you want to see the ending that I withdrew, you must overcome your worst situation: actually putting in effort!” the figure explained.

“I’ve been putting in tons of effort to get here! What do you mea--” Quincy said.   
“Not you. Your viewpoint. This world has a ruler separate from The Reader. We Reality Shapers read from his content every passing moment to decide what to do next. That’s why I’m so fast. Meanwhile, you’re holding yourself back in order to deliver what’s more comfortable to you! Well guess what, actually get up and approach me!” the figure said, revealing himself as;

“Heaven’s Eye?” Quincy asked.   
“Heaven’s  _ Mirror, _ ” he said. “I’ve grown since the last time you called for me. I eventually gained the ability to read reality’s pages, trap others in it, and form entire alternate realities out of the gem in my head. From there, I can affect our reality using the events I have stored here. This empty room is known as the Wavelength Chamber, and it’s where incomplete events ferment and become complete again. You’re unable to move because another timeline is beginning to turn its back on you. A timeline where you were once The Reader.”

“Wait, I was The Reader?” Quincy asked.

“Not in my reality, but another one wants your attention. I see you’ve been slowly approaching me from the ground ever since we’ve talked.” Heaven’s Mirror said.

Thus, Quincy was shown Heaven’s Mirror’s current reality.

The Reader was shown to have exponentially powerful skills, including unfathomable speed, overwhelming potential, and the power to reshape space. Using this, he managed to knock Midway out of commission using an empowered version of the Three Shaders, which turn out to be massive rays of light that shine in three different colors: red, blue, and purple. Solar was dealt with using a pillar of Dominion under his feet (he crashlanded in Solution City alive and well), Father Pure almost died when a wave beam composed of Radiance and Dominion put together struck him in the face (he recovered from this and made a tactical retreat to Solution City), and Eschaton saw that everyone else was in a bind, so he gave a large portion of his power to Heaven’s Eye (Just after that, he was pierced by one of The Reader’s Arousal Arrows, which are so filled with Dominion that they burst on contact and kill anyone who doesn’t first protect themselves with a large amount of Radiance. Eschaton was reduced to only a head, but Father Pure hopes to restore him soon.) When Heaven’s Eye became Heaven’s Mirror, what followed was a series of massive clashes from both Reality Shapers. The Reader attempted to overcome Heaven’s Mirror with a massive burst of Dominion, but Heaven’s Mirror read reality’s pages beforehand and countered it with a wave of Radiance large enough to turn part of Solution City into a glitter-infested locale similar to Cuteness Valley. The Reader was cut in half and eviscerated, his blood and gore replaced with glitter and sparkles. The very concept of Dominion 99% vanished, and The Reader’s castle was sent away in an alternate reality.

“Now that you have seen my ending, do you want to experience the effects for yourself? If so, stand up and walk through the door.” Heaven’s Mirror said to Quincy.

As he did so, a gray humanoid figure ran up to him and tried to force him down.

“Your effort is canceled. Sit down, and only think for yourself.” The Reader’s fragment said to Quincy. As he said that, Quincy flipped behind it and threw it behind him. Heaven’s Mirror tossed Quincy his laser sword, but Quincy refused to touch it for a while. The fragment got back up and tried to punch Quincy, but he dodged, grabbed and threw it aside, grabbed his laser sword, and threw it at the fragment, stabbing it and charging it with enough Radiance to power a pop concert. The fragment exploded in gray dust.

“Creative use of your sword,” Mirror said. “Proceed.”

Quincy did, and the next thing he saw was a greyed out version of Solution City marred by inactivity. A large part of it was uninhabitable as most of its residents moved to the second district. 

“This is supposed to be the other side’s Savannah Central, correct?” Quincy questioned.

“Yes, and only you have the power to change it. You’re going to have to become a Reality Shaper to fix what you have done as The Reader.” Mirror responded.

“I thought that reality wasn’t canon!” Quincy exclaimed.

“Both of them are. It’s just that one of the endings has more influence than the other. You will have to change reality’s pages by yourself. I can’t fight your battle. I can only assist you.” Mirror explained.

Ah, the hero’s journey, but with a twist. Let’s see what we have in store.


	2. A-Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Solution City has been desolated and it is up to our hero to find out what happened and how to fix it.

Quincy’s first opponent was a being created by The Reader to patrol his new dystopian world: Sweet Virus. It has the power to create clouds that disorients the target and easily place them in range of its powerful strikes. Such an effect occurred on Quincy when he got close to an “abandoned” theater that was actually still running, but was guarded by Sweet Virus.

“Huh. I actually recognize this place,” Quincy says.

“Well you can’t go inside…” Mirror responds.

“I’ll do you the honors first,” Sweet Virus says to them both.

“How so?” Quincy says, readying a fighter stance.

Sweet Virus releases its cloud, which is a dark pink color.

Quincy throws a dozen punches, none of which land.

Meanwhile, as he was getting drowsy, Sweet Virus attacked him by punching and kicking from seven different angles.

“Why can’t you hit him?” Mirror shouted.

“I can’t see where he’s at! The more I look at him, the next minute, he’s gone!” Quincy responded.

Mirror had one solution to this unstoppable attack: he stops time.

“That’s enough. I’m done waiting.” he says afterward.

While time is frozen in a green-and-black haze, Mirror kicks Sweet Virus so high that Virus flies  _ above _ the theater.

Mirror follows that up with a 14-hit combo from his rail-thin sword on his arm. Once that has concluded, Mirror simply flicks Virus, sending it flying far away from the theater.

This removes the barrier around the theater AND dispels the clouds.

Mirror unfreezes time.

“What did you do--” Quincy attempts to ask.

“Nothing. I fixed the problem. Now, we walk in the theater and discuss our next move.” Mirror responds.

That they do.

  
  


“Remember that tavern you saw when you were warped further into the Hexagon Foundation?” Mirror asks.   
“How do you know I was there for that?!” Quincy exclaims.

Mirror just taps at his head.

“Oh. Yeah, I do--” Quincy replies before he realizes that the entire theater has been molded into that tavern.   
“What? This isn’t a tavern at all! This is a--” Quincy says.   
“Yep, it’s been done. Orange and white all around, more men than you can count. Welcome to your--” Mirror announces to Quincy. This even though those two were the only ones there!

Just then, a black-and-white striped version of Quincy descends from the ceiling. He looked like he was ready to fight, so Quincy just kicked him.

The other Quincy grabbed his foot and threw him aside.

Teleporting forward, he hits our Quincy hard enough to send him flying through the window, though no damage was done. 

The other Quincy then hit 5 times by teleporting all around him, then launching him back inside.

“What kinda beef he got with me?!” our Quincy shouted.   
“I don’t know. He looks like he’s from another world entirely. I’ll size him up.” Mirror said.

Mirror borrowed our Quincy’s laser sword and dealt some hits to Quincy from another world.

Another World Quincy brandished his own sword and clashed with Mirror.

This world’s Quincy took the time to flee and gather his bearings behind the “kitchen”, which morphed itself into the outside of a warehouse, for the ruse had been broken.

“Where in time am I now?” This world’s Quincy asked himself.   
The warehouse looked quite familiar to Quincy, but he just didn’t know what was inside of it. He took some steps forward and entered the building.

As he went inside, a huge statue of a fox stood in the middle, and Quincy stared at it with a combination of surprise and confusion. “Why would a fox statue be sitting here of all places…?”

“Tell me, traveler. What do you value most with what you create? Fame? Money? Or just burning hot passion?”

That distant masculine voice alerted Quincy that someone else was on the premises. He couldn’t tell where he was because of how dark every location that wasn’t pierced by the light was. The fox descended from the ceiling and dove at Quincy, notably targeting his head and not anywhere else. 

Quincy jumped back and readied a fighting stance.

The fox--

“The fox said that his name was the Apex Predator. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m thinking he’s a powerful somebody.” Quincy thought.

Apex Predator tried to kick at his head, but Quincy ducked and replied with a punch combo. 

Apex blocked the last hit and threw him behind so far back that he had to teleport to Quincy’s location to get a lead on him.

“A Reality Shaper! He must have created this place!” Quincy thought.

“And what makes you think that?” Apex said. He can read minds, which comes with the territory of being a Reality Shaper. Nothing can escape the minds of these people.   
“Well, there’s the statue of you, the warehouse losing its orange color when you get hit, that huge symbol of your face on the floor…” Quincy said.

“Good eye,” Apex replied. “You wanna get your bearings together?”

Quincy then jerked back as dark energy emerged from him. Something about what he said before fighting Quincy caused it to appear. From that, Quincy tried to back away.

“Is that something else I gotta fight?!” Apex exclaimed as he brandished his Reality Shaper weapon: The Glitch Saber.

Apex rushed after a four-armed Quincy, but the strength of the Outer Forces held him back a bit. Quincy follows this up with a move he can’t control.

800-hit punches.

Apex, now bleeding from every area from his front, readied his Glitch Saber and let it do all the work.

Faster than speeds the Outer Forces can register, every shadow was cut down from Quincy’s back, and the true perpetrator was revealed to them both after the teleport fest.

“Quincy? You were supposed to protect us all!” Eschaton cried out.

“Eschaton? You don’t look like you,” Quincy said with concern.

“Is this guy a friend of yours?” Apex asked.   
“Nope! Must be a clone of the real deal. I bet he’s somewhere around here.” Quincy replied.

“Well, I’m about to size him up,” Apex responded.

That’s when Mirror appeared outside the warehouse and dashed inside to find Quincy. His battle with the other Quincy forced the latter to leave prematurely due to Mirror’s power, but he did make sure that he would return. 

Once Mirror went inside, he ran fast enough to break the sound barrier and crush Eschaton’s head in and launch him a considerable distance before Apex could even move.

“What was that?” Quincy exclaimed.

“We’ve got some explaining to do,” Mirror said to both Quincy and Apex Predator.

  
  


“Who is this guy?” Mirror asked Quincy.

“Well, I just met him so I can’t quite say,” Quincy responds.   
“I’m the one everyone looks up to. The ruler of this establishment.” Predator says.

“Oh. He kinda looks the type. I wonder how strong he is.” Mirror wonders.   
“He’s a Reality Shaper.” Quincy casually comments.

Mirror looks at Predator with surprise as all three of them walk out of the door to return Quincy to Solution City.   
“Where are you going?” Predator asks curiously.

“We’re going back to Solution City, where we came from.” Mirror replies.   
“Aren’t you already here?” Predator responds.

“Wait, this warehouse is actually in Solution City?” Quincy asks.

“Indeed. You probably got here through Deception, a phenomenon where you enter a place, it looks like another place and weird things can happen, like teleporting to a completely different side of the city, like you are here. You’re on the western side of Solution City, which is greyed out like the eastern side. I don’t know how it happened, but I think it may have something to do with the universe getting turned on its side.” Predator explains.

Quincy looks at Mirror with contempt upon hearing that last part. Little does he know that Mirror cast that black hole on that side of the world and emptied out the City to show Quincy what it means to have the world to oneself. More specifically, how to properly care for something. All that has been done is pointless fighting. He still hasn’t tried to make the journey to the Sanctum properly.

Once they walk outside, they encounter one of the Sanctum’s bodyguards, who only goes by a number, 416. 

“Why is the Sanctum sending troops against  _ us _ ?” Mirror asks.

Predator brandishes his Glitch Saber and cuts the angel just once.

The angel flies backward with a huge glitchy gash in its chest. It then disappears behind the trees.

“That sword is wicked strong. I won’t be carried through all of my fights like this, will I?” Quincy wonders.

“Well, no. After all, you are the man who sold the world, and now you must get it back. Then, pieces of the ending that you so crave will be granted to you.” Mirror explains.

“Ah, got it,” Quincy responds. “Was I really The Reader?”

Mirror responds, “It’s complicated to say the least.”

That angel then leaps back into action. It almost cuts Predator when Quincy’s arm starts marking a blue vein. With it, Quincy does a massive uppercut, taking the angel by surprise.

Higher and higher they go, they shoot for the skies, and in response, the angel opens up the way to the Sanctum. Quincy responds to this with, “Go ahead! Take me in there! Let me see what’s in store!” However, the angel refuses to let him go. Quincy then swipes his hand across the angel’s body, sending it flying so fast across the air that its body disappears, presumably back to the Sanctum.

“Hey Quincy! You left a crack in the sky!” Predator yelled.

Quincy lands back on the ground.

“That ain’t my doing. I think it leads somewhere. To find out where, I'm gonna do a bit of searching around the city. ALL of the city,” Quincy responded.

It’s truly a roundabout path.

  
  


That blue vein holds one of the most powerful combat systems that Quincy can use; The Breakthrough System. Conjurations make a return, some new ones are added. But the real meat of the system is the Divine Fusion. Any Conjuration that is compatible with it can augment into Quincy and give him new and advanced forms. Zeropoint Form is the first one he discovered, and he did so just before he reached his next destination…

The three waded through the trees and wandered through an alley. There was plenty of junk to be found throughout the path, but where it led them to was most surprising.

“Is this Savannah Central?” Mirror wondered aloud.

“But completely greyed out. I don’t even see the arch anymore. Tell me, Mirror. What happened to it?” Quincy questioned.

“You’ll see.” Mirror said.

Just then, however, Quincy saw everything glitch out. Both of his friends disappeared, and a large, glitchy tornado appeared around him. Everywhere, Quincy wondered where his companions went, and they did so in kind when they noticed that Quincy was gone. Quincy didn’t know where he ended up. He felt a massive pressure come over him which left him feeling drowsy. He wondered if this was the effect of Sweet Virus. It sure wasn’t - This was in fact the Divine Sanctum. IT was torn apart by a subgroup of the Polygons known as the Geometrics, and they are much stronger and bigger than the Polygons. One such tank tore into the main room, forcing some guards to appear and attempt to take it out. Quincy just stood there, staring the tank down as the guards behind him dropped dead, having been blasted apart by the tank’s sheer power. Quincy wasn’t letting this tank go anywhere, knowing it probably had a role in destroying the Sanctum. Quincy could feel a connection going on between him and the tank, and it was amplified when the tank shot at him, colliding him with a Dominion Energy charge, changing his form, and granting him a new set of powers. A purple-colored Conjuration Fusion. Immunity to the Dominion was granted to him, allowing him to shrug off most of the tank’s attacks. Swiftly and carefully, Quincy dismantled the tank and kicked its driver out, destroying it in one hit. 

Wandering around the Sanctum, he found out that most of it was destroyed by the tornado. The guards here are absolutely horrified at the damage done to their stronghold, and they feel like it will only get worse.

“What’s next, the Geometrics coming to the world below?”   
“The world is not safe anymore!”   
“The Geometrics are getting stronger and we have little to no defenses anymore…”

Quincy wanted none of this. He ran past the hallways and made it to the rehab ward, where he found the angel that once attacked him.

“I was corrupted! I’m absolutely sorry that I even--”    
Quincy retorted with, “Nah, I already know that something’s afoot. A tank that looked nothing like you guys once attacked me. That’s why I’m glowing purple right now. I’m gonna discover the meaning behind all of this, is that fine with you?”

Then the black hole that got him into this carried him back outside to Savannah Central. He was reunited with Predator and Mirror, only to be confronted with a TON of Geometrics once the meteor hit the ground. Quincy readied Zeropoint form and brandished a long purple chain. This chain cut through most of the Geometrics in the area, and as Quincy swung it, the bodies on the chain racked up a huge kill count. Quincy marveled at how awesome of a weapon he has on him now. That is, until the massive battle tank, Arpeggio, showed itself in the chaotic tides of war. There were only four people fighting this battle, but Arpeggio managed to slow down the oncoming waves of Geometrics. It appeared to be linked to the enemies themselves, for when it rode on the battlefield, cannon pointed at Quincy, everyone around the tank froze still. “Does destroying this thing destroy everything else?” Quincy thought. “Let’s give that a shot.” With that, he had Predator cut it apart with Glitch Saber, but Arpeggio ran over him and shot at Quincy twice. Quincy absorbed the damage and countered with an even  _ bigger  _ beam of purple energy from his hands. Arpeggio tried to fire a salvo of homing missiles in the air, but Mirror leaped up and grabbed them all. He then fell down and slammed the missiles on Arpeggio’s surface the mere moment when Quincy punched it hard enough to send it flying. Its defeat caused the whole army of Geometrics to perish….

The black hole comes again, and Quincy is questioning why it’s showing up again and again despite having only transported him to this timeline once. Either way, all four of them were carried to a large, open room. It looked very much like a boys’ room, but the most important part was the capsule. The capsule in the center of the bed. Quincy examined it, and it grew propellers that were even longer than the lamp on the desk! Propeller Delta, Predator called it. The toys hiding in every sort of crevice imaginable were scared sick of this thing, for its blades had the power to cut through red oak wood! Imagine what it could do to mere plastic! Quincy leaped on top of Propeller Delta before the blades could spin, and punched the capsule an immeasurable number of times. The capsule cracked and it released an energy field as retaliation. Quincy hung onto it with his Zeropoint appendages, and he vowed never to let go. Propeller Delta flew around the room, going haywire as it tried to find a way to cut Quincy clean in half. Little did it know that he was right below it, hanging by a thin strand. Propeller eventually made it outside, flying high above the ground. None of the suburbia could see the chaos happening in the skies. Quincy tried his hardest to climb up his strand of purple energy, negated only by increasing air pressure from the skies above. He tried taking out his gun and shooting Propeller to decrease its altitude, and little did he know it was weak to bullets because he accidentally shot the actual propeller, causing it to lose altitude. “Well, that’s one way to do it…” Quincy thought to himself. He continued firing the gun at the propellers until the machine was nothing more than a capsule with broken wings. Quincy then did a power move: he grabbed the capsule by climbing up his appendage and then gripping it. Then he held onto it tight until it hit the ground. Quincy, tiny compared to his surroundings, made it out just fine. He sneaked to the front porch only for the black hole to come up from behind him.

While Quincy was in the void, a voice spoke to him. “Your efforts to destroy my army have proven successful. However, you still have a lot to uncover.”

Then a whole gallery of rather unsafe Affinities revealed themselves to Quincy.

“Where’d you get all this porn from?!” he thought. “Entire rooms of nothing but this. Are you prepared to escape my rooms to fix the Sanctum?!”

There were six of those rooms. Quincy armed himself to dodge whatever came at him; these rooms had turrets whose shots bypassed Zeropoint.

It didn’t even end there. Among all the fighting Quincy did against the Geometrics, the air of the room; the power of the Affinities there transformed him into something altogether different. Volatile Form, where he gains a helmet and an immunity to all elements except Radiance. He ripped through every enemy in the area, dodging turret attacks by flipping off of the blue squares that function as walls. Meanwhile, the voice, Quincy from another world, leaped out of the walls and challenged our hero to a fight. “I wanna take that form for a spin.” Another World Quincy said. Little did he know that Volatile Form was extremely powerful. His mighty claw attacks ripped through AW Quincy’s armor and actually dealt quite a lot of damage to him with every strike.

“Two can play that game.” AW Quincy said, holding Quincy’s claws.

“What do you mean? I have you at my mercy,” Quincy responded.

“You see, I plan to continue the work of my predecessor. I already have all Six Genres… Wait, make that EIGHT. Eight Genres.” AW Quincy replied.   
“Oh yeah? What made you decide to add two more?” Quincy questioned.

“A little bargain from the man himself. See, I went on a business trip with him once while you weren’t looking. Even though he’s almost dead, he was still able to oversee me fight your Radiant Army. Seriously, those guys made me sweat, but then my old man gave me another Genre to work with. Then, I kicked the crap out of your dudes. All six of them. Do you think an army of children’s toys would work against someone so into his element like me?” AW Quincy explained. 

The Square Zone then started tilting as both Quincies saw the whole arena shift into a polygonal mess. While Quincy was trying to grip the surface, he saw a familiar piece of art on the triangular prism:

“You had this saved in memory and didn’t tell me?!” Quincy yelled.

“Ah yes. Dominion Affinity #71: The fourth installment in a series by one particular artist whose love of shading brought me to my knees. You probably didn’t see this one because you were so focused on the other three you thought of keeping around. Fear not.  **For this one has plenty of d---** ” AW Quincy said.

Quincy took that time to climb up the prism and surprise attack AW Quincy with his claw. 

“Maybe if you’d shut up and focus, you wouldn’t be so darn horny!” Quincy commented.

“Your one-liners need work,” AW Quincy replied.

“Is getting a fox and a bunny together the best thing you can do?” Quincy asked.

“Nope. THIS IS!” AW Quincy said just before spreading his arms, unleashing a field of glitch energy powerful enough to launch Quincy far away from his alternate universe counterpart. 

“Even if I did see that coming, there was no way I could have dodged that.” Quincy thought.

“Dominion Affinity #609: Where the pressure’s so intense that every part increases in size! Let the…” AW Quincy yelled before his voice was drowned out by Quincy’s thoughts.   
“Yammer on, prince of lust. I have no time for your pathetic reasoning.” Quincy thought.

“...And the floor was full of it, indeed.” AW Quincy said as he closed up his book. Then a marker flew at him and hit his face.

“You have exactly 5 to live.” Quincy quipped confidently.   
“5 what? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?” AW Quincy asked concerningly.    
“5... 4…. 3…. 2... “ Quincy counted with a smug look on his face.

Artist’s Dilemma lit itself up after he said 1, badly damaging AW Quincy until he was bleeding profusely from his mouth. As he landed on the floor, he saw some of his shattered bones trailing the ground, covered in blood.

“What did you do to me?!” AW Quincy said. 

“You won’t be getting up from that one anytime soon.” Quincy said. “Lion cub, descend from the skies! Your split center will determine the fate of battle!”

“Twin Element #214… The lion cub of the Outer Forces. She went there because she was torn apart from the bottom by one of our numbers. None of us know who did it, but it pretty much scarred her for whatever life she had at the end of it all. By the time she reached the dark side, the Forces were already trying to use her as a war utility. This is how she channels that dark energy.” AW Quincy explained.

Quincy then receives a massive boost in power from the lion cub’s Radiance. The remaining Dominion power was used to chuck AW Quincy out of the polygon world.

“Glad that’s over.” Quincy said.

“ **You couldn’t be more wrong about that!”** AW Quincy shouted in his hammiest voice ever.

“Did it not register?” Quincy wondered out loud.

“More like you didn’t actually harm me!” AW Quincy said. 

Just then, as the glitchy effects got worse, Solution City began getting adversely affected. The entire western side disappears, the entire city of Zootopia underneath it vanishes with its inhabitants. Everything then starts levitating.

AW Quincy fires a transparent beam of kinetic energy from his finger. Quincy evades it and another three lasers. It isn’t until he nearly slips on a platform that he finally gets hit by the laser and flies head-first into the Echo Chamber of Suggestive Arts, which is exactly what it implies. A place where the bridge between tasteful and explicit is fully reinforced, it aims to provide a safe environment for testing out the secrets of the Twin Element, a combination of Radiance and Dominion energy. Quincy was already proficient at both, but the Twin Element demands more from him in a seemingly empty world.

“This can’t be too bad. Time to go exploring,” Quincy thought. It was a vast world out there in the Echo Chamber.

Mysteriously enough, the Echo Chamber shows Quincy pieces of art called “Radiant Pieces” from the main world. While it doesn’t faze Quincy as much as it should, he still felt like he wasn’t good at much with drawing. But that’s when Shelly came in. An experienced guardian of the Chamber. She was very similar to Quincy, but with a strengthened resolve and a faster initiative. She offered to help him, but at a price.

“Welcome to the Echo Chamber! Now can I see that pen in your hand?” she said.

She grabbed it like a magnet and fled off the cliffside with it. Quincy had no idea what to think of her, but nevertheless he feels like she would be a good, if skeptical, ally.

Shelley proved herself to be formidable on the Canvas. One she made it to that room, she picked out 16 of the 144 colors available to her, then started drawing a rather large rune circle. It had green letters on the spokes, and 7 colors were used to fill in the panels.

Quincy had already dove off the cliffside by the time Shelley was done creating the circle. When she  _ was _ done, she activated it with one touch and transported herself into the second floor of the Echo Chamber. Quincy followed suit once he saw the portal.

“That drawing I made? That’s going in your records. You are in no position to tell yourself that you’re no good at anything, hear?” Shelley told Quincy. 

“I never said that I didn’t think I was good at art, I just wasn’t motivated!” Quincy retorted.

The only thing that broke their conversation was one of the Reader’s Diamond Dogs descending from the air. It was Ace, who wandered in here upon obtaining the souls of 6 people he tried to date (roll with it), two of which are complete. Upon meeting our heroes, he says,

“Greetings, would you like to take a look at the souls I’ve gathered?”

“Frankly, now’s not the time for this.” Shelley says.

Seeing that all but one of the souls were girls, Quincy makes a quick deduction.

“You were out there for little more than quick enjoyment!" Quincy says.

"You're right. I already managed to achieve that twice." Ace said. "I won't use them now, however. Part I'm concerned about is halting your journey. The Denizen gave me a call. Basically if you keep those Dominion Affinities stored in Millennium, the world will end. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure they're still there."

Shelley started by jumping back and using a Radiance Affinity to throw knives at Ace. He responds by blocking the knives with one of his souls, effectively using it as a meatshield. He then fires back by punching her across the room. Quincy responds by Conjuring a tiger known for literal kung fu fighting and lets her handle Ace. They trade hits with each other and eventually take their fight to the air. Ace then backhands the tiger so hard that Quincy leaps up there and attempts to fight Ace himself. 

Then, the black hole emerges, much to their surprise. Quincy exclaims, “What is your problem?!” Not even Ace knows why it’s there, but it transforms him into a different being altogether. His true form as a Diamond Dog gives him claws and a tail overlaying his body. He also takes on more feral characteristics. With this new set of powers, he augments each soul into his body, causing his strength to exponentially jump. Quincy found it incredibly difficult to keep up with him, especially as his skin crystallized into multicolored diamonds, preventing Ace from getting hit entirely. Diamonds are the hardest rocks in the Mohs scale, so Ace’s newfound armor was near-impenetrable. Fortunately, a particularly high-ranking angel came out through a black hole, kicked Quincy and Shelley through yet another, then got on his horse and prepared to fight Ace. Their fight was tense, carrying them all over the Echo Chamber. While Ace did manage to cripple this angel’s horse, he responded by spearing Ace and dragging him to the depths of the Chamber, with the angel watching the Chamber be destroyed in the process.

The black hole opens back up and both Quincy and Shelley are riding biplanes. The two were overtaken by the self-proclaimed “leader of the skies”, Jack. Hailing from the same league as Ace, Jack was a master of the field of cropping Affinities, much like Midway and his biker crew were before. 

“Hey, flying ace! Let’s see you race through the open space of the Blue Zone!” Jack called out. He didn’t seem to act like an enemy. He sounded like he was just challenging Quincy to a race. But what the Blue Zone held was something that would change Quincy before he knew it.

Jack’s message “Come inside, you’re gonna love this!” faded into the atmosphere as Quincy found himself weaving through lines of light and blue rings as the aftermath of the Echo Chamber swirls in front of the group. The black hole then appears again, with Quincy sighing upon seeing it (“Someone’s messing up the deadlines!” he said) and then diving down below the swaths of fog in order to confront Jack. Piloting a C-130 Hercules, Jack’s plane was more than large enough to support two people on it, so Quincy leaped on it and went to Jack’s location quick enough just to see him transform into his Diamond Dog form. 

“Black Hole’s kinda effective, isn’t it? It keeps transforming us into our ultimate forms before we can even get adjusted to our regular forms!” Jack said.

“It’s strange, I don’t know why it’s even there.” Quincy said.

Jack surprised Quincy by attempting to hit him with his tail. Quincy grabbed his tail and flung him across the plane. 

“What’s your deal?” Quincy questioned.   
“The Blue Zone. The reason why I made it was for you to know things you haven’t known before. Like the wonders of a world previously explored in the old days. The old universe… The Reader has described it to me perfectly. Thus, I wanted to make a world like that. The Blue Zone came naturally, and now it’s beckoning you to join its side.” Jack explained.

Shelley was having trouble with it herself, while she is immune to its effects the enemies and lack of breathing space to move around in is making her consider just boarding the plane like a hoverboard and firing at the enemies with her powers. She didn’t do it, though.

“So, are you going to succumb to the Blue Zone, or…” Jack said before brandishing a blue energy spear and throwing it at Quincy, hitting him square in the chest.

“...do I need to make you?!” 

Jack rushed at Quincy and tried to take him down while he was still reeling, but Quincy threw him into the cockpit, cracking it. He then did a kick that launched a shockwave powerful enough to launch Jack through the cockpit, destroying it entirely. This propels Jack through the winds and launches Quincy far back enough to send him into the next black hole.

This actually leads him back to Solution City, with the spear still in his chest. Jack re-enters through the black hole, still in his Diamond Dog form.

“You know full and well that this fight is not through!” he said.

They were both standing in the ruins of Solution City, and while Quincy was devastated to witness what happened to it, he’s more focused on Jack.

“That spear in your chest is designed to put more focus on Dominion abilities. You’ll become a better combatant in no time, but there may be some side effects latched on. Are you prepared to face them head-on?” Jack explained.

“I personally don’t want to take this thing off. But if I rearrange your body, that may change.” Quincy said. 

Both of them brandished their weapons before rushing at each other. Blocking each other’s blows, they find themselves levitating due to the effects of the hollowed out Solution City. 

They keep trading hits, sometimes flying back due to the recoil. The levitation stops at a certain point, so they land on metal platforms to keep their footing. It’s extremely hard for them to hit each other here because of how far the platforms are from each other. 

Quincy pulls out his gun, but Jack teleports behind him and attempts to claw him. Quincy just aims his gun behind him and fires, crippling Jack because of the location where the bullet hit. Quincy follows up with a hard throw. 

He gives chase in the air and smacks Jack around a few times, eventually launching him into one of Solution City’s ruined buildings. 

Jack regains his composure upon landing on the ground and materializes a sword of his own.

The two swordfighters start clashing with each other. 

Swing after swing, their dodging and clashing came to a head when Quincy was launched into a wall, but ran on it after landing and ambushed Jack from above. He started with a kick to disarm Jack, then a slash to cut his arm off.

Reeling from the pain, Jack’s Diamond Dog form started to wear off.

Quincy finishes up his run by slashing Jack a few times, then topping off the combo by writing Jack’s name on his forehead with a familiar-looking pen, then launching him off the building with the resulting explosion of color. 

Jack didn’t survive the fall, as his armor was long gone and he has nothing to reduce his momentum with.

“That spear he threw in me, it’s supposed to increase my powers, right? If so, then why do I feel such a mysterious circumstance happening to my body?” Quincy contemplated. Little did he know…

He had some blue lines running down his hand.


	3. B-Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission to restore Solution City continues.

Quincy returns back to the ground, and it is just then he discovers his blue vein running down his arm. “What’s this? This wasn’t there before…” he wonders to himself. Just then, out from behind the debris, are five hooded creatures with card suits on them. “I think I’ve seen you guys before. How’s it going?” Quincy asks before they reveal themselves. “That’s a bit more than I wanted to see, mind you,” he says concerningly.  
“I think it’s a perfect fit for you.”  
“Who was that?” Quincy says in a bit of a panic as he turns around and wonders where the voice was.  
“I’m right here. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight…”  
Quincy’s chest suddenly has a painful mark emblazoned on it! A phantasmal fox rushes toward the hooded guys and swipes across them, ripping bloody holes in them all.  
“Wow. I didn’t think-- ...Are you serious? You ain’t got nothing on, yet you don’t show anything either!” Quincy realizes.  
“I’m a manifestation of your inner secrets. A once-in-a-lifetime guardian. Wilde Side. Can you remember that?” he says.  
“Yeah, sure. Just note: I got this blue vein--”  
“More on that later.” Wilde Side says as he returns to Quincy’s side.  
Quincy walks around the desolated Solution City when he notes the Artist’s Guild still standing.  
“You know, I heard you wanted to enter this place and get a membership.” Wilde Side comments.  
“Yeah, I did. But everyone keeps getting in before I do.” Quincy says.  
Another hooded figure, this time wearing a Clubs suit, is watching the two from above the Guild.  
“Maybe perhaps they have more experience than you do? Working in the field for longer? Hey, look - It’s still early. You still have a lot to prepare for. Don’t make yourself look higher than--” Wilde Side says. Then he reads Quincy’s records mid-sentence.   
“I catch ONE glimpse of your bio, turns out you have an inferiority complex generated by your lack of social skills, apparently. Should I fish that parasite from you?” Wilde Side says.  
“No need.” the hooded figure says while diving down from the ceiling.  
“Not so fast!” Wilde Side exclaims.  
He uppercuts the figure so hard that it splits into two.  
“Now, where were we?” Wilde Side says.  
“First, we need to fix the Divine Sanctum,” Quincy says.  
“Now tell me how we think you can do that.” Wilde Side says.  
“First, we have to defeat the one that split it up. His name is King.” Quincy notes.  
“How do you know that?” Wilde Side questions.  
Quincy is unable to answer that for some reason.  
“By the way, that blue vein on your arm? That’s a Dominion stimulator. It supercharges your Dominion usage to get better results from your attacks.” Wilde Side comments.  
“What you said sounded various layers of suggestive.” Quincy notices.  
“Hey, it was suggestive content that led you here to this alternate universe.” Wilde Side admits.  
“Alternate… universe?” Quincy wonders.  
“Yeah. Your gun got replaced, too. It’s a revolver with a protective yellow shield on it. It spins meaning it fires better and quicker shots. Try it out in the firing range. We’ll look for some more enemies later on.”

Then, a black hole, red in color this time, took Quincy to an unidentified settlement. This time, he was surrounded by buff guys of different sizes. “Try to keep your composure.” Wilde Side told Quincy. “Yeah, like that’s easy to do,” Quincy whispered back.  
“Recruiting was a success. We’ve managed to draw one in.” one of the guys said. “Care to get to know us a little?” he also said with a knowing look on his face. Quincy was NOT comfortable with this at all.

Shelley, after a few minutes of hard work, finally managed to break in and enter the settlement. Pretty big building with a lobby at the start. There’s a TV in the corner playing some Hallmark program no-one cares about, so the residents here just chat about random topics. That is, until Shelley made her presence known. “Oh, she’s here. Better put your hoods on, boys!” the guy speaking to Quincy shouted after watching the radar in his room. The word “hood” startled Quincy a bit, as he met a few of those guys earlier on just before he got Wilde Side. He decided to wait and stare at the screen to see what’s up while the rest of the hooded men leave the room. “Genius idea.” Wilde Side said.  
When the hooded men rushed to Shelley’s location, Shelley put her hand out and the entire room just froze in place. Then, Shelley waved her arms around in an intricate manner before kneeling and putting her hands together. Doing this, she manages to Conjure that same tiger from earlier that was slapped away by Ace. “Good to have you back,” Shelley said to her.  
With that, the two girls slam a hooded guy back a few feet, and as time resumes, the rest of the group are looking back at the guy that got hit, trying not to get hit by him at the same time. While they were distracted, Shelley throws one backward, then flips over and snaps the neck of another with her legs. Meanwhile, the tiger flips over one of the guys, double kicks two at once, and does a strong punch on another, sending him flying towards three other guys.  
“They sure do know how to fight. I don’t even think those hooded guys are trying!” Wilde Side commented.  
“I think they’re distracted by the fact that they exist. Is getting beat by a girl hard if you can’t even look her in the eyes?” Quincy responded.

“Yeah, he’s ready. Launch the program.”  
“He looks born ready! This will be no problem at all!”  
Quincy heard these two pre-teen voices, and subsequently wondered where they came from. Then, without warning, he was warped into a building lined by pillars, coated with beautiful wall art and floor textures, topped off by a mural on the ceiling.  
“What’s this supposed to be…?” Quincy asked himself. He felt Wilde Side’s presence, but the guardian was not there. He looked up at the mural and saw three things.  
He saw four mysterious cherubic warriors with swords up against a blue monster.  
“Scary monsters…” Quincy said to himself.  
He then saw those same four warriors, this time appearing as anthropomorphic animals, obtaining a red symbol.  
“An unbroken bond…”  
And finally, the biggest part of the mural. A young fox and a young bunny sharing a tender embrace, their faces running with tears.  
“Kind fellow, have you not been touched by the Radiant Soul? It is a very powerful influence, and the fact that you laid eyes on it means you know how to unlock the powers on your left arm.”  
“Who was that?!” Quincy exclaimed.  
“No worries. You’ll find out what the “Tender Embrace” is soon enough.”  
Quincy’s left arm started glowing, and with that, it painfully gravitated to the ground as Quincy struggled to pick it back up. The power output was so high that the pillars began to fall apart, the walls started to crack, and Quincy’s left hand started trembling, glowing redder with each passing second. The mural, on the other hand, is completely untouched.  
“You’re doing good so far. Tearing up my establishment is not something I expected you to do, but you’re still welcome here.”  
After all was said and done, Quincy got his bearings together.  
“Where’s your place?” Quincy asked.  
Before he knew it, he found himself in a rather regal lobby, with four kids, dressed in red, blue, black and orange, armed and ready, standing before him. The one behind them was a slightly taller pre-teen dressed in a nice suit, in a thinking posture with his legs crossed.  
“You’re all… kids?” Quincy asked.  
“Highly trained kids with a sense of right and wrong.” the one wearing red said.  
“Y’all are actually fit for battle and everything? Who trained you?” Quincy exclaimed.  
They all point to the one in the suit, a feline master of combat.  
“Pleased to meet you. My name is Percy, and these are my students, all forming the Radiant Army. The one in red is Cody, the one in blue is Raymond, the one in black is Devon, and the one in orange is Mark. Should I also mention their choice of weaponry?” Percy explains.  
“Hit me with it,” Quincy says.  
Cody then pulls out a sword and attempts to brandish Quincy with it.   
“This is your recruitment test!” Percy says.  
While Quincy did dodge the sword, he was noticeably missing his own sword. Percy threw him one, and Quincy caught it. He then clashed his sword against Cody’s.  
“Let’s see if you can keep up with this!” Cody said while rushing towards Quincy.  
“No need.”  
“Huh?”  
Quincy rushes forward, blocks Cody’s next attack by straight-up disarming him, then knocks him away softly to put him in his place. Everyone was amazed at that sight.  
“Did you see that?”  
“Did he train himself to do that?”  
“How fast did he go?”  
“Genius maneuver, I’d say,” Percy says. “However, being the leader of these graceful disciples, I possess the highest--”   
“Prove it to me. My reaction speed is coming back in full force, and if you can’t hit me, you have no right to say these things.” Quincy snaps back.  
Percy then teleports behind Quincy in an attempt to surprise him, but once Percy attempts to land a punch, Quincy flips forward, grabs Percy’s arm, then throws him into another world entirely: the Hexagon Foundation! The Radiant Army follows.  
“I wonder, dear Quincy. Do you train here?” Percy asks.  
“On my off-days, I usually do. I’m conditioned to the sights and wonders to be found here, including the more mature elements. Can you keep up with my blindingly fast speed?” Quincy explains.  
He then runs so fast that only a blur is shown behind him when he runs. Upon confronting 14 enemies spawned from a single card (Dominion Affinity #88, “Joker Card’s Fetish”), he suddenly summons 19 different swords, all rotating around him. He picks the one with the gold crossguard, then starts cutting his foes until they are reduced to bloody chunks on the ground. He then summons a Beretta Mx4 Storm and guns down the ones behind him. Then Percy appears behind him, managing to grab one of the swords that Quincy summons trying to react to his presence. Quincy takes his gun, hits Percy a few times with it, then chooses a “pizza cutter” sword to clash him with.  
“I see you’ve taken after me.” Quincy comments.  
The two clash repeatedly as they jump from platform to platform. The Geometrics keep coming in, and they retaliate in kind. They toss their swords upwards, swapping them, then they clash with each other again. This helps them realize that they are much better with their new swords than the one they had before. They clash some more, and this time Devon joins in with his polearm. Quincy briefly clashes with him before jumping off a wall and having Devon run into it before restarting his fight against Percy. Percy tries landing a bunch of sword attacks on Quincy, but Quincy’s sheer speed outclasses the speed of Percy’s attacks. Quincy then disarms Percy with one blow, then kicks him so hard that he accidentally triggers a card behind him, Dominion Affinity #705 “Red-flavored Pawpsicle Sticks”, thus summoning a crazed otter. Percy chokeslams this otter and throws her at Quincy, who cuts her in half with one slice. Percy then jumps off this card and attempts to flying kick Quincy. Quincy just grabs his foot and throws Percy behind him.  
“How old are you? Twelve?” Quincy asks.  
“We all look and sound underage, but we have the minds of perfectly functioning adults. The innocence is just there for show, really.” Percy explains. “I have another ability of mine called the Radiant Soul, but I only bring it out situationally. Before we join you, state your motive.” This is a TWELVE YEAR OLD in a fancy suit acting like he’s from the 19th century.  
“Solution City, which you may no doubt know about due to how omniscient you seem to be, has been desolated, and I want to help rebuild it. I received word from a friend of mine that the way to do that is by visiting the Divine Sanctum, repairing that, and then--”  
“You are aware that you’re repairing a city in an alternate universe ruled by a dictator with otherworldly powers, right?” Percy responds.  
“Yes. I’m doing that to repair a timeline split in half by a fellow Reality Shaper.”  
“You talk like you are one, no?”  
“Maybe. But that’s not the point, the point is--”  
“There are two people named “The Reader” in our universe. Either you, or someone running around claiming to be you, and this crazed reptile called “Black Metal.” I’m hearing reports that he used to be this armored fellow on a horse…”  
“That’s the Reader I once fought!”  
“Then he must be your target. He’s up there in the Sanctum, we’ll join you for this one. But first, you have a lot to learn.”

Meanwhile…

Another World Quincy is about to go up against several of the last remaining angels, who decided to confront the guy in his own home.   
“Wow. Right here, you decide to approach me?”  
He gets off his chair.  
“How many times do we have to do this, old man? I already wiped your place clean because you didn’t like the color blue. Well, guess what? I’m a man of color just like you are!”  
AW Quincy then summons 14 blue needles and lets them fly at one of the angels, who then sits there, punctured and bleeding.  
“Unless you want to become like that guy, you better steer clear of my path or else I’ll actually wreck your place and turn it into my personal--”  
“We’re not afraid of you. Even if we’ve lost half the things we spent years building up, we’re still gonna make efforts to replace it!” one of the angels said with determination.  
“You’re gonna need a better one-liner.” AW Quincy snarked.  
AW Quincy jumped up, decapitated the first angel by swooping down like a bat, then kicked another away after landing. He then won a fistfight with another angel by judo throwing it across the room. Another angel managed to spear him in the abdomen, but AW Quincy shrugged it off like it was a twig stabbing him instead and actually threw the angel aside. The remaining angel, who watched the curb stomp happen, tried to run away, but AW Quincy just shot it across the room, leaving nothing but a noticeable bloodstain and a charred corpse.  
“I’m not ready for another disappointment, alright?” he then said, intending on hitting the Divine Sanctum a second time.

The real Quincy, meanwhile, had fully assembled the Radiant Army. The members are as follows:  
Cody: a red-furred fox who wields a European broadsword. His armor may remind you of Robin Hood.  
Raymond, a Boston Terrier who wears blue and wields a wooden quarterstaff that can extend using chain links embedded in the middle of the staff.   
Devon, a pocket mouse wearing a black tunic, wields a Chinese ring polearm.  
Mark, an otter who wears an orange bandanna, mainly fights with his hands and feet. It shows because he was actually the only member of the Army to actually hit Quincy.  
Percy, a black bear who wears a nice suit. It’s unknown as to what his powers actually are; the rest of the Army actually make theories on this but none of them are proven right when they actually watch Percy fight.  
When they went outside and saw who their enemy was, Shelley and the tiger she Conjured were still fighting the hooded guys outside.  
“I swear they were fighting these guys roughly 45 minutes ago…” Quincy commented.  
“45 minutes in our place is 45 seconds out here,” Percy explained. “Kinda strange how time works, isn’t it?”  
The tiger throws one guy toward Shelley, and Shelley split kicks him so hard that her foot actually pierces the guy’s chest, leaving a noticeable scar on him. Quincy decides to have some fun with this while out of sight. He takes his gold-plated revolver and fires it a few times. Then he tracks where the bullets go and curves their flight path by turning a dial on the gun. By switching from one bullet to another, he actually confuses the whole crowd, even Shelley and the tiger!  
“And…. set.”  
Quincy’s words cause the whole salvo of bullets to hit the hooded guys directly in the foreheads. They’re alive till they hit the ground.  
“That takes care of that, and that is done…” Quincy says triumphantly…  
“And here I am to pick up the slack.” the last of the card suits, King, says.  
Quincy attempts to make a getaway to the Divine Sanctum using the portal that King exited from. Smart move on his behalf, but it leaves the other ones stranded to fight an overpowered Dominion master.   
“The only one who could reliably take me down just left the premises. What’re you going to do now?” King says to everyone around him.  
“I told him to. He needs to power himself up before he can do anything else related to restoring both universes to their natural state.

Quincy enters the Divine Sanctum, and only three things are there: Himself, an endless chasm filled with all sorts of space particles, and the corrupted Reader from the other world, the one that AW Quincy bent to his will using sheer power alone. Black Metal. A crazed version of the Reader that Quincy once fought before the timeline split in half.  
“Having fun yet?” Heaven’s Mirror said, teleporting in.  
“Where were you while we were fighting dudes?” Quincy asked.  
“Completing some errands, like picking up the slack that you once left behind. I’m the one who makes the plans and carries them out, you’re a mere background character that handles the main jobs. I can actually teleport out of this reality and influence another one entirely! That’s the only reason why The Denizen is still around!” Mirror explains.  
Quincy doesn’t even know what Mirror is talking about, but he remains silent.   
“Black Metal, the one before you, is the result of you going overboard with your desires, eclipsing the Reader entirely, and taking over the ruined city below you with an iron fist, eventually desolating it. I could have shown you that universe after you defeated the Reader in the main universe, but I decided to put you in it as a direct result of your errors. Those errors being your repeated usage of the Hexagon Foundation. You may not know it yet, but you’ve been to the Foundation over 20 times! This influenced the growth of your right arm’s blue vein, but your left arm’s red vein is a confusing sight to me. Where did you get this?” Mirror explained, then questioned.  
“Your ‘all-seeing eye’ couldn’t see the fact that not even I know where I got this vein from, AND the other vein being a direct result of a chance encounter with an army that DEFINITELY knows what they’re doing?” Quincy responded.  
Black Metal brandished two swords, then lunged at Quincy. Quincy responded by flip kicking him upwards, then pulling out his gun and firing at him 5 times. Black Metal can’t even get back at this, being so weakened by his encounter with AW Quincy.  
“So what do you want to do now?” Mirror asked.  
Quincy walked over and put his left hand on Black Metal, integrating him within Quincy. Doing this, Quincy gained the power of all four Radiant Genres, thus powering up his vein to the max. This gives him a new outfit inspired by the nobles of the 18th century, finally promoting him to Reality Shaper status.  
“The Greeks had four words for love. Eros, or romantic love, philia, or friendly love, Storge, or empathic love, and agape, a true sense of loyalty. This goes beyond the concept of Radiance, Mirror. Possessing this knowledge is not something a regular person can just do. This Radiant Army clearly came from outside the boundaries of which we know, thus were able to access concepts beyond what we’re capable of giving thought to. They have taught me quite a lot over the time they’ve shown me around their place, and that’s why I believe I’m capable of stretching past what I used to be capable of.”  
Quincy then stuns Mirror with a Radiant Affinity without effort.  
“You were unable to block that because it was a power beyond your control. You call yourself a Reality Shaper and you can’t even block something so simple? Some Reality Shaper. If we all have defined power levels, then what’s the point of calling our rank “infinite”? Someone with that designation would have to have no defined limits. To be able to fix entire cities with a snap of a finger… to tank massive blows by just standing there… to be able to resurrect entire nations from death by just willing it to happen. How far must we go to surpass these feats?”  
“What are you on about?” Mirror says after snapping out of his funk.  
“To handle responsibility, we must push ourselves to fight our desires. Knowing us, we would have to reach a level of divine strength to be able to give ourselves next-level thought comprehension and initiative. This is what it means to be a GOOD Reality Shaper.” Quincy says.

Then King came along and met the two Shapers head to head.  
“Looks like Mr. Boy Scout finally earned his merit badge!” King commented.  
“With a nice little muzzle on top!” Quincy snapped back.  
Both of them then took a moment to realize how dark that joke was.  
“Honestly I’d never expect that from you.” Mirror said.  
“Well I have a score to settle. First I’m gonna make him take off that mantle and have him assume the role of one of our Dominion--”  
“King, that vein is GONE. The only remnant of it still left is my ability to accurately trace cards and Affinities of both Radiant and Dominion descent.” Quincy explained.  
King then rushed at Quincy, unaware of his actual powers. Quincy then pulled out a phone and almost instinctively blocked every hit King tried to land with his hands with one arm. Even King is surprised that Quincy can do this.   
“I can predict every move you make, King. Nothing can escape the mind of a Reality Shaper.” Quincy said to him. He then put his phone away, forcibly turned King around, then kicked him away so hard that he managed to crack the wall in front of him. Quincy then pointed at the ground and launched a pink projectile. Then he held up a card and pointed it forward, substantially increasing the power of said projectile. From that card he launched two other projectiles, one that fired straight ahead, and one that came from above like a bomber plane’s explosives. King couldn’t understand this mixup. He jumped over one, got hit by another, and found himself flying back into the wall by the third one.  
“Couldn’t even approach me without avoiding my tactics. Does that show how good of a fighter I am… or does that show how weak of a card suit you are?” Quincy said to King.  
Meanwhile, Mirror went over to another room of this sector and met another of the “Metal” characters: Power Metal. He saw Apex Predator over there fighting Doom Metal with all of his ability, since Doom Metal was so strong.  
“They’re all… reptiles?” Mirror wondered to himself prior to fighting Power Metal. While Mirror can do pretty much anything that comes with the course of being a Reality Shaper (improved stats, teleportation, heightened senses, basic attacks defying the course of reality, etc.) but the Metal lizards rely on sheer strength and willpower to carry them through their battles. Mirror in particular could beef up his basic attacks by bending reality itself as he fights, thus dealing more damage to his enemies. He can even attack with alternate realities this way!  
King and Quincy had a pretty long fight. Quincy was actively seeing this man's next attacks coming as he responded in kind, with either Radiant explosives or through simple hand-to-hand combat. Then Quincy decided to end the feud right there by hitting King so hard that he clutched his stomach in pain, then teleported behind him and cut his head off with one swipe.   
"I could put up a better fight against a Reality Shaper." Quincy commented. Then he was thrown into the final world *with* a Reality Shaper.

"You're not fixing that world yet. I still have yet to cut the timeline into pieces!"

AW Quincy had a score to settle with Quincy. His friends couldn't come over because AW Quincy's Metal reptiles were fighting them at the moment. Apex Predator had sheer strength backing him up, but Doom Metal's deadly poison attacks kept him at a distance. Mirror could nail impressive combos on Power Metal but every time Power Metal struck back, it struck back hard, and Mirror often found himself tumbling back because of its utter strength.  
"You have a choice. Go back, and I can lock you out of my side of space while you save your friends and watch the world burn, or you can fight me and just forget about them and watch them die to my ultra-powerful soldiers. Pick your poison." AW Quincy said.  
"Well, they are the guardians of World A, aren't they?" Quincy said.  
"Come again?" AW Quincy asked.  
"World A. It contains both Solution City and believe it or not, right under us; Zootopia. Even if one side can't interact with the other, you're still endangering both cities. This is the gateway from where we travel to other worlds. Reality Shapers are supposed to keep watch over this! Why do you want to destroy the world with Dominion so badly?"  
"Because the Radiance is dominating World A. I want to find a balance between that and this in order to master the Twin Element. The ultimate source of happiness and arousal."  
"You can't have both at once!"  
"Twin Element #1989 would like to have a word with you."  
AW Quincy then summons that Twin Affinity, and becomes one with it much like how Quincy became one with Black Metal.  
But then, Black Metal radiates within Quincy and says "Think... Think of.... Quincy? There's... something above you...!"  
Quincy then looks up... He sees the clone of himself he spawned prematurely handily destroying Power Metal by twisting its arm off and then breaking its head open!  
The clone them makes its way to Doom Metal, powers in hand.  
Doom Metal attempts to poison Quincy with its dagger, but Quincy's superior speed makes it impossible for Doom Metal to even touch Quincy. In response, Quincy does a powerful kick combo, then summons a thousand "reality shards" to cut Doom Metal into tons of bloody chunks.  
"Now back to the show. Look above you, dear ones!" Quincy said through his clone.

Quincy readies his attention to AW Quincy, with his Twin Affinity in hand. He used it to transform himself into a being that could actually destroy the world if he wanted to. Death Metal.  
Unlike some of the transformations you see elsewhere, Death Metal is about the same size as Quincy. The main difference is that his body is covered in a dark material that acts as armor and an attack extension. In addition, he possesses some of the same high reflexes that Quincy has on him. This would make him a formidable foe, but Quincy has a few more tricks up his sleeve.  
First, Quincy tries a disarming blow followed by a kick. Death Metal dodges both of these attempts and tries to get back at Quincy with a punch. He dodges that too, and they both realize that the other one can't even get hit at the moment. Confused, they both resort to using their powers. Death Metal starts with some rock geysers, but when they fail to hit Quincy, Quincy changes the arena to that of an upstairs storage room made entirely of wood, surrounded by boxes of varying sizes. The sun pokes through the window, and this bothers Death Metal none at all. Quincy produces a ring of fire around him, then spun around so that his outstretched hand would be caught in the fire, thus increasing its size and imbuing it in fire. This actually manages to harm Death Metal, and after a 14-hit combo, Quincy launches Death Metal at the wall. Quincy gives chase, with Death Metal seemingly unable to do anything. However, what Quincy didn't see coming was Death Metal's drill kick. Quincy attempted to teleport away, but as he did so he actually flew back a bit! Death Metal landed and immediately conjured a bow. In response, Quincy Conjured a master vulpine archer. They rapid-fired their arrows at each other. When they ran out of arrows to fire, they jumped at each other. The archer, Robin Hood, did an axe kick, immediately grounding Death Metal. Surprisingly good with his feet, Robin's kicks repeatedly swept Death Metal off his feet, and eventually, into the wall. That's when Quincy and Robin charged up a special move. Quincy augmented Robin's bow with pure Radiant energy, allowing him to fire his bow without any arrows. Robin took one fated shot at Death Metal...

The whole storage area collapsed. Death Metal was speared by the arrow, which crippled his defenses, then crushed by the column, which gave him a mass flashback of all the things he did under Quincy's guise in the Hexagon Foundation. From there he remembered a few things that were a direct consequence of the Radiant Army intruding into his business. No matter how hard they tried to fend him away, doing so wasn't the important part. The important part was exposing him to enough Radiance so as to get used to its influence and change for the better. They weren't even trying to beat him - if they did, they would have floored him on sight. This is what Death Metal thought of last before he was forced to live on as a mere influence. An influence of the Twin Element.

Quincy made it back to the Reality Shaper's field, and there were Mirror and Predator, having seen everything Quincy did.  
"Don't say anything. I'm about to restore the timeline back to where it belongs." Quincy says.  
"You mean to tell me...?" Predator questioned.  
"Yes. This timeline and the other one were originally supposed to be linear. However, allowing the other Quincy to defeat the otherwise unstoppable Reader allowed me to finish the job by destroying the weakened Death Metal--"  
"Are you going to fix it?" Mirror asked.  
"On it."  
Within moments of Quincy raising his hand high, Solution City's mass and color were gradually restored. All of Zootopia came back, and the world was free of harmful influences once again. For now.  
"What's next on the list?" Quincy asks.  
"There's plenty of things to do. Why don't we take a peek around the other side of World A?" Mirror suggested.  
"I was thinking about heading to the Artist's Guild." Predator recommends.  
The other two look at him before thinking about what he said. With that, they exit the distorted room and find a new pastime.


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's more to this part than what lets on, however. Let's follow the events in Solution City after the timeline was put back together.

Meet Emerald. Standing at 5'8, this cyan rabbit wields two cool-looking custom guns: Missionary, which resembles a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver with a silver touch, Cowgirl, which is a modified Ruger Blackhawk with a metal/rubber handle as opposed to a wooden one. He also has one on his back that fires massive cannon rounds known as Reverse Cowgirl. He also has a gun embedded in his leg called Twenty-Three. Emerald is very good with guns; he can reload all three of his on the fly, dodge and block incoming bullets, and even use a revolutionary system known as Bullet Drive. This gives him the ability to perform all of these feats at a lower cost, and more. In his spare time, Emerald contributes to the Artist's Guild. Doing so, he has amassed an impressive gallery numbering in the dozens. He is very proud of what he does both in and out of combat, but he does have a tendency to change the history of the city underneath his home a lot to a risque degree. He also doesn't mind filling in the gaps of the Hexagon Foundation in both the safe and not so safe sides. As a result, he has some degree of control over the Twin Element. He was one of the people swept up by the catastrophe that hit the timeline-split Solution City, and ever since its recovery he was very happy to be back where he belonged. Emerald is a nickname: his true name is unknown and he doesn't bother revealing it.

  
Joseph (red fox wearing a hoodie), too, is another member of the Artist's Guild who is surprisingly powerful in his own right. While he does reuse Quincy's sword select system, the way he does it is simpler. He only has 5 swords instead of 19. Each one is based on a different scenario that his chosen character from the city down under (Zootopia if you aren't aware) has gone through. Using a certain common red fox as his guardian, Precious (something akin to a Stand), his defenses and offenses are raised to decent levels and his attacks pierce through shields and other forms of guarding. Due to being a strong force that emerged from the seeds of a discarded shell and went up in power virtually overnight, his strength and defenses are unparalleled to begin with.

Gayle. Another rabbit, but with a fur color more aligned with the bunny cop from downstairs. He often wears casual clothing when he's more chill, but you often see him going around with a full suit of red body armor. This is because all of his powers are linked to that armor, and if he's not wearing it, he can't "do the magic" (not my words, nor Gayle's). Once he IS wearing the armor, however, he becomes one of the strongest forces of nature to walk Solution City. When he and Joseph did a quick spar one day, Gayle wiped the floor with Joseph because the latter couldn't find an easy way to dent Gayle's armor. Gayle, however, is way more of a lover than he is a fighter, so he tends to be more negociable than the other members of the Guild. If he has to, however, he will resort to action.

They and Quincy were all tasked to defeat a massive polygonal dragon outside the City's walls by one of the staff in the Artist's Guild, Scott Cheatham.

[Gayle] "What for?"  
[Scott] "Well, apparently it's making a crapton of racket. I heard some words come out of the beast's body, but all it amounted to was some heated controversy."  
[Gayle] "Was it political?"  
[Scott] "Cannot say at all--"  
[Joseph] "I'm all in. Where is this dragon at?"  
[Scott] "Right outside the boundaries of the City. if you see a massive orange circle, then you're getting closer to it."  
[Gayle, Emerald, Joseph and Quincy] "En route!"

The walk from the Guild to the boundary was not a short one; this was going from one corner of a quarter of the city to another. They eventually made a passthrough in a hotel because that had the side-effect of having a detour leading right next to the boundary.

[Quincy] "Who was in charge of mapping this City out?"  
[Emerald] "I don't know, but putting a hotel next to the outskirts of a city does not seem safe to me at all."  
[Joseph] "There is actually some civilization right out there where the dragon is. Thus, it actually seems logical!"  
[Emerald] "So Solution City really does mirror Zootopia."  
Then, all but Emerald shuddered upon realizing where and why the dragon was out there.   
[Gayle] "The mere thought of not putting this civil unrest where it belongs... it just burns me up."  
[Quincy] "Yeah, but why so randomly, and why so abrupt?"  
[Joseph] "It's obviously the prelude to something much worse."  
[Gayle] "What could that be?"  
[Joseph] "Do I look like a fortune teller?"  
Emerald got one quick look at the dragon's appearance. After seeing some notorious hate symbols marked on its scales, he took a step back, sat at the table and shotgunned the whole cup of beer sitting there. Nobody else noticed him doing so.  
[Emerald, to himself] "Just a quick cup of that to get my mind off the stress. The last thing I want is recent events imprinted on my mind."  
With that, the group, after some mingling, agreed to set off with mixed valiance.

The Heavily Armed Dragon was large and foreboding, but everyone had ranged weapons on board (except Joseph, who only had his close-range attacks, and Quincy, who had to Conjure Blaze the Cat) so it was fine. While it did tank a lot of hits, It only fell short when everyone brought out their full strength. Then, Joseph started picking it apart using a melee weapon that resembled a claw on some chains. Him ripping the dragon's head off with it caused its outer body to fall apart, causing thousands of small spheres to spill from it.

[Joseph] "What was that all about?"  
[Quincy] "Am I the only one seeing this?"  
Everyone turns around towards Quincy.  
[Gayle] "Why? What's wrong?"  
[Quincy] "That wasn't supposed to happen. Joseph has only five swords and not six. I didn't see that claw sword when he pulled out his armory the first time around. The dragon was also way larger than this when I looked at it from the room we were in earlier. Like, Godzilla-sized. In addition, I saw a massive town when I saw the dragon from the room but when we marched over here now it's just a mild pasture. What's going on?"

[Invidia] "Good on you for figuring that out."  
[Quincy] "Who's there?!"  
Everyone except Quincy runs out of there as Invidia dives down and meets Quincy as the entire battle arena changes to a chunk of rock flat on the top over a sea of clouds.  
[Invidia] "I've been here for years. Longer than you have, honestly. The only thing you've come down here to do is to take what I have. What do I have, you ask? a LOT of things. Potential, abilities, a desire to perform more--"  
[Quincy] "Look dude, I've barely even known you. What did you say your name was?"  
[Invidia] "Invidia."  
Quincy, realizing that he's up against a literal sin, quickly pulls out his gun and fires at Invidia. Invidia just steps to the side, dodging it.  
[Quincy] "What just happened?"  
[Invidia] "The bullet slowed down for me. When any projectile heads my path, the field around me begins to slow down, giving me protection against bullets that you can't see. I'd like to try to get to know you a little better, though..."  
He then brandishes a mirror image version of one of Quincy's own swords to fight him with. In response, Quincy summons the same sword quickly enough to block Invidia's blow. They clash multiple times and repeatedly block each other's blows. It all came to a head when Quincy swung twice in one second, catching Invidia off-guard as he reeled back from the impact of the blow.  
[Invidia] "Let's calmly put our swords away."  
He claps twice, and the rock arena changes to something resembling a small office, complete with wallpapers on the walls and a table or two backed up against the wall in addition to some metal shelves on the right. Invidia moves to the right, anticipating Quincy's bullet. Once it hits the wall. Invidia stops time out of nowhere and floods Quincy's front with knives, only for Quincy to invade Invidia's world of stopped time (he is a Reality Shaper after all) and shove the knives away. After Quincy puts his gun away, he attempts to punch Invidia, but he blocks it. Quincy's strength wins the day and he manages to flip Invidia over, though not without jumping first to get some clearance. Invidia lands feet first and does a gesture egging Quincy on to keep fighting him. Quincy relents, but then Invidia jumps over him and attempts to attack him from above. Quincy flip kicks him out of the air, and Invidia gains his bearings back as he prepares a fighting stance.

  
Meanwhile, two girls, Frostbite (wolf) and Mistwalker (fox/bunny), are settiling a dispute rather violently over one of them returning to Solution City.  
[Mistwalker] "Why exactly did you leave and show up to this bumf--- fantasy world?"  
[Frostbite] "Solution City doesn't need me anymore. I'm all cooped up here where my true interests lie. Now if you want--"  
Mistwalker jabs her with her own ice lance, then does a flying knee strike to launch her across the room. The two continue their brutal hand-to-hand in the next room, where they try to hit each other, but continue to parry each other's blows.  
[Mistwalker] "At least I had a better reason to ditch the City for a while."  
[Frostbite] "A while? People say you've been gone for a year!"  
[Mistwalker] "Nobody said I couldn't make a return visit."  
Frostbite lifts Mistwalker up and throws her to a wall, seemingly knocking her out. Down for the count, sure, but she looks like she's ready to get back up.

Meanwhile, Invidia and Quincy's tussle carry them through several dimensions at once thanks to their ability to travel to other worlds (and skipping ahead by 4 days). It doesn't quite stop there either. Invidia and Quincy land in a crystallic arena, and that's when Invidia revealed his true form: a white cat like creature. He then pulled out 6 knives, three in each hand. Before he could throw them, however, he was stopped by Quincy's new guardian: Wilde Side EXTRA. Wilde Side teleports Quincy out of the area while deleting the one Invidia's in, erasing the guy for good.

But that's not the end of it. A new guy named Sugarfoot arrives in Solution City, claiming to be from an alternate universe.  
[Quincy] "As if I don't have enough adversaries as it is..."  
[Sugarfoot] "It must get on your nerves, seeing as how I'm from a world where you once caused everything to collapse, and that shelter your Predator friend claims to live at almost ceased to exist..."  
[Quincy] "Wait, what?"  
[Sugarfoot] "And you did it. I watched you and fled to this universe to evade the corruption you had spread upon that one. Your next line is: But I didn't do anything!"  
[Quincy] "But I didn't do anything--"  
[Sugarfoot] "Should I show you exactly what you did? You killed a guy, made another one leave the pre--"  
[Quincy] "Pass. Sounds like a waste of my time. Besides, I'm not stupid enough to believe that you're not the one who actually did it all."

Quincy summoned Wilde Side EXTRA and made him beat some sense into Sugarfoot. Sugarfoot chaged the arena to some hallway and turned all three of them into 8bit sprites.  
[Quincy] "Real clever."  
[Sugarfoot] "There's more where that came from!"  
Sugarfoot then kicked Wilde Side aside and took out a Thompson submachine gun (complete with a drum magazine!) and fired away at the guardian. Quincy called him back and took the hits himself by summoning a bubble-like shield. Quincy then realizes where he is in terms of power level.  
[Quincy] "You know, I became a Reality Shaper just 4 days ago, though it doesn't feel like 4 days ago."  
[Wilde Side] "That's because it wasn't 4 days ago. Invidia was distorting the passage of time. It's currently August 6th."  
[Quincy] "But I fought Invidia on the first!"  
[Quincy and Wilde Side] "Oh no. I have a bad feeling about this."

Quincy then teleports behind Sugarfoot and flip kicks him to launch him, then summons one of his swords to try to impale him. While the impalement did not work as Sugarfoot flipped out of hte way, Quincy was able to use the sword to launch him forward through some walls. That's when Wilde Side appeared in front of Quincy, stopped Sugarfoot in the air, and cut him in half on the spot.

[Wilde Side] "Next time, let's not bring in uninvited guests."  
[Quincy] "Look, what could our next challenge possibly be?"  
[Wilde Side] "Someone with an actual set of powers."  
[Quincy] "...."  
[Wilde Side] "If you can actually keep up instead of transferring your soul to other places, getting coked up on that, then maybe you could actually get the scoop on your enemies' powers instead of waiting on me to sort out the problem."  
[Quincy] "Wait, how much control over the storyline do I got?"  
[Wilde Side] "As much as I am willing to give you."  
[Quincy] "You mean to tell me there is no fourth wall?"  
[Wilde Side] "You can do what you set your mind to. Lack of effort equals lack of detail. This holds true for anything you do. As the most powerful ally you've ever had by far, I believe that you can expand upon your enemies' powers as long as you are actually focused on doing so. Quincy, if you don't do this next job right, I'll just skip to an event that I've already had planned."  
[Quincy] "What's my next job?"  
[Wilde Side] "I've gotten reports about this cat wandering around Solution City...."  
[Quincy] "Ain't nothing to worry about--"  
[Wilde Side] "Ain't no feral cat either."

Splinter, we'll call him. That's not his actual name, for he knows his name, but doesn't bother to tell anyone. Not even any Reality Shaper will know his real name, for he doesn't trust any of them. He carries a notable RP British accent, and he identifies as a European shorthair domestic cat with gray fur and white markings. He looks like a child, but despite his height and appearance he is a quite capable adult. His cowboy outfit certainly stands out against the urban clothing of Solution City's residents. While wandering Solution City on a fence, he found the Artists' Guild with Quincy standing before it, unable to move.

[Splinter] "Ay, what'cha lookin' at?"  
[Quincy] "I....I can no longer move...!"  
Splinter looks where he's looking and sees a character that he's very knowledgable about.  
[Splinter] "Ah yes, you've become blinded by the essence of cuteness, have you not?"  
[Quincy] "The f---'s a "cuteness"?"  
[Splinter] "How do you not know what that is?!"  
[Quincy] "We have Radiance, but I'm not sure what you're talking about."  
Splinter then summons his guardian, Teen Spirit, and disappears behind the fence. He then has his equally humanoid guardian (Species: Aegean domestic) summon a Trajectory Node at his former position. He then takes aim with his Smith and Wesson M1917 revolver, a gun that he's had for most of his waking life.  
[Splinter] "I have a good feeling that something's not right with him. I'm gonna find out for myself."  
Splinter fires a bullet charged with Radiance at the Trajectory Node, and it flies right around and goes for Quincy. Quincy jumps back.  
[Quincy] "You trying to give me a heart attack?!"  
Splinter jumps back from behind the fence and lands on top of it.  
[Splinter] "I very well could, your behavior is mighty suspicious..."  
[Quincy] "This is nothing you need to worry about!"  
[Splinter] "What did you say your name was again?"  
[Quincy] "Quincy."  
[Splinter] "...Hello me. Meet the REAL me."  
Splinter jumps down and attempts to drill kick into Quincy. While Quincy does grab his legs and attempts to slam him into the ground, Splinter lands on his arms and slams Quincy into the ground.  
[Splinter] "The brain of a cat is specifically wired so that when they fall down, they always land on their feet! What is it with you lagomorphs being so fast and yet never being able to take a hit? We are far faster and stronger than that? Do you ever wonder why lions have the reputation they do today?"  
Quincy rushes at Splinter, but Splinter seemingly teleports behind Quincy.  
[Splinter] "Didn't see my fabulous-looking watch, did you? Time is by my side in this fight."  
He then summons Teen Spirit, clad in armor this time. He makes six clones of it and makes it rush after Quincy. While Quincy does fight the clones, Teen Spirit itself isn't harmed. The Trajectory Node Splinter summoned ahead of time doesn't reach Quincy's eyes though, and in time, a carefully placed bullet blindsides Quincy. Splinter then reloaded his stock by making the bullets fly back from where they came.  
[Splinter] "I never run out of bullets! When I run out, I simply call them back! My gun doesn't work like others do; the bullets I use don't require cartridges! They just fly out of the gun like they are! This way, I don't need to clean my gun or worry about it jamming! The perks of being a gunslinger are numerous!"  
[Quincy] "Did you come out of a western or something?"  
[Splinter] "Sort of."  
As soon as Quincy summons Wilde Side, the guardian drops a major bomb:  
[Wilde Side] "As the other half of Apex Predator that broke off when the timeline was split in two, I have to return to him. As for you, I have a surprise for you. Something that I know you'll love."  
Wilde Side leaves Quincy for Apex Predator, and soon enough, when they finally reunite, Splinter and Quincy suddenly float in the air!  
[Splinter] "I did say I was the real me. That's because you, Quincy, did not live to see the timeline reset. You're a mere shell - a mere, jealous shell - of a new person dropped off to be the real main character. That would be me."  
[Quincy] "I'm dead?!"  
[Splinter] "Dead man walking. Not sure how, but you live."  
They land in a black void continually flickering with Teen Spirit's image.  
[Quincy] "There she is again! Staring daggers at me"  
[Splinter] "Wait wait wait one second. "she"? I only recall there being one--"  
Quincy then has his body interpolate in 18 different colors, which sends Splinter through a portal containing the same number of parallel universes.  
[Splinter] "He cannot control himself around the "Radiance", can he?"  
Apex Predator and Quincy himself passed him by, and the latter's uncontrollability sends Splinter into a white void room.   
[Apex Predator] "Can you hear me around that noise? Not even the strongest Reality Shapers are able to settle this man down! He is destroying EVERYTHING!"  
Solution City was then shown to Splinter in a wrecked state. He could not believe his eyes.  
[Splinter] "That was a perfectly good city until he met me...His mind is jacked. I thought this would be a normal thing to resolve. ....Wait, where is Teen Spirit?!"  
He can't summon it anymore. That white void room is actually cream colored. Apex Predator and Teen Spirit where nowhere to be found. To replace them, a dark, bear-like entity showed up with red-and-orange markings on it. This was Symphonic Metal, Quincy's last ditch attempt to erase everything in Solution City and set fire to World A, conquering it for good.   
[Splinter] "A black bear....are you kidding me?"  
Symphonic Metal swiped its paw across the air, sending a wave of energy colored exactly like Metal was towards Splinter's direction. Splinter evaded it and spun his revolver's chamber.  
[Splinter] "This is Bullet Drive, a larger-than-life method to improve the combat skills of any gunslinger! It's different depending on the gun, but mine can do this!"  
He then fires a black hole that fires a spead of 5 bullets every 2 seconds. Symphonic Metal wasn't just a tanky bear, however. It rushed forward, bypassing the black hole, and grabbed Splinter. It then attempted to do a spinning piledriver on him, but Splinter froze time by turning his watch's dial.  
[Splinter] "Good idea, but my watch tells the correct time no matter where I am. Thus, I don't need to spin the dial, but when I do, time bends to my will and stops right then and there!"  
Splinter then manages to slip from the bear's grasp and land on his arms. While the bear is hanging up there in the air, Splinter takes the time to re-engage Bullet Drive and fire more bullets than he has into the bear's body, doing a splendid about of damage to it before time unfreezes. Then, the bear convulses in pain and lands on the ground hard.  
[Splinter] "Should tell you exactly how fearless I am, no?"  
Symphonic Metal wasn't very happy about what Splinter did to it, but the latter could hear Apex Predator in there egging Splinter on to destroy the bear and repair Solution City. This gave Splinter the incentive to put the zombie bear to rest right where it stood.  
[Splinter] "I don't even know how much punishment this bear can take before it goes for good. My bullets are doing decent work to this bear, but it just got right back up, ready to kill me."  
Splinter then heard a faint voice from Apex Predator...  
[Apex Predator] "Have you tried clashing what it knows with what you know?"  
[Splinter] "Cats have excellent hearing, good to know!"  
This is what Splinter does next. He puts away his gun, and rushes over to Symphonic Metal. He grabs the bear, and asks it:  
[Splinter] "Tell me what you know."  
One chokehold from Splinter later, and their thoughts clash. Psychokinetically, they tussle over their motives and desires. It reaches a stopping point when Splinter's thoughts reach Quincy's most valuable one: Being better than everyone else.  
[Splinter] "This is why you died."  
Once Splinter takes that over, Symphonic Metal begins to vanish, its user finally being put to rest indefinitely. The white void room disappears, and both Splinter and Apex Predator lands in a restored Solution City. However...

[Apex Predator] "Is that a black hole?"  
[Splinter] "That bear summoned it here to try to take us out! We might make it, but I doubt this city will..."  
[Predator] "Why not?"  
[Splinter] "Because I come from another version of this city. An alternate universe where everyone you know existed, but in a different form. Even the city itself was radically different."  
[Predator] "What was it called?"  
[Splinter] "Zootopia."  
[Predator] "You mean..."  
[Splinter] "Yes, the one right under us."

The day turns into night.

[???] "Get out of my head!"  
This unnamed figure and what appeared to be Symphonic Metal were fighting around the black hole, trying to keep a hold on the state of the world.  
[Splinter] "Is that..."  
[Predator] "Symphonic Metal...? And is that Quincy?"  
It was indeed! Both of them thought Quincy was dead, but he brought himself back to life by hanging on to Symphonic Metal while IT was bringing itself back to life. Once the two started to coexist, they've done nothing but fight. At one point, their fight escalates to the point where once Symphonic Metal was about to grab Quincy, the latter pulled off a magnificent stunt:  
[Quincy] "Do me a favor, and never come back here again."  
Quincy held his arm up and managed to stop time! A robotic female voice then came from his arm, now surrounded by a glowy cream-colored aura.  
[Female voice] "Conjuration complete."  
Just then, that aura flew out of Quincy's arm and drove itself into Symphonic Metal.   
[Quincy] "It's not a Conjured character. It's a force."  
Just then, time unfroze, causing the aura to quickly fly into the black hole.   
[Quincy] "Predator! Splinter! Brace yourselves!"  
[Splinter] "What for-- Oh. Oh no. This is not going to end well."

The black hole was expanding, the aura trying to keep it in check. Eventually, it expanded to a point where it engulfed everything. The aura, named "Father Balder", spent its very will trying to diffuse the problem while preserving Solution City. Zootopia, the city underneath, was not affected in the slightest.  
[Quincy] "Why not?"  
[Predator] "Balder is protecting it."  
[Splinter] "Or rather, it has its own force protecting it."  
Gayle, Emerald, Scott, and Joseph were all in the black hole as well.  
[Emerald] "Go ahead! Tell them about the goddess protecting everything you know!"  
[???] "Her Majesty's name is Judith Laverne Hopps."  
[Quincy] "You mean, the one fro--"  
[???] "Yes. Her. I am she."  
[Everyone else] "Where'd you come from?"  
[Judy] "Splinter, you can't stay here for much longer. Come with me."  
[Splinter] "To where?"

Splinter got his answer when he was thrown beyond the black hole's range, into a mysterious, desert-like area. He looked around to check to see if everyone was still there. No response. Then a wicked sandstorm kicked up and warped him to another location entirely - a rather familiar looking town populated by mammals wearing rather rugged, western-style clothing. A fox passes him by, and Splinter asks him a question.  
[Splinter] "Excuse me, what's the time and date?"  
[the fox] "May 17, 2016, 2:16 PM."  
[Splinter] "That was 4 years ago..."


End file.
